1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an air conditioner and, more particularly, to an air conditioner particularly suited for use in an automobile.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An automobile air conditioner of a type installed in the ceiling in the passenger's compartment of an automobile body structure is well known in the art and is disclosed in, for example, the Japanese Laid-open Utility Model Publications No. 63-22213 and No. 63-24011 published in 1988. According to these publications, the prior art automobile air conditioner employs a blower in the form of a centrifugal fan and has an air outlet grille on the front face thereof.
Where the centrifugal fan is employed for the blower, the assembly as a whole tends to be relatively bulky, and the thickness thereof as measured from the ceiling down to the bottom of the assembly is difficult to reduce. As is well known to those skilled in the art, the blower assembly employing a centrifugal fan is of a construction wherein air is sucked into the assembly in an axial direction along the shaft about with which the fan rotates and is discharged from the circumference of the assembly radially outwardly, i.e., in a centrifugal direction. Therefore, reduction of the diameter of the centrifugal fan is not possible.
In particular, the first mentioned Japanese publication (No. 63-22213/1988) discloses the blower assembly with the fan shaft extending horizontally, i.e., generally parallel to the ceiling. The horizontal arrangement of the fan shaft permits a fan casing for encasing the centrifugal fan to protrude downwards from the ceiling and into the interior of the automobile body structure through a distance corresponding to the diameter of the centrifugal fan.
Also, the width of the centrifugal fan as measured in a direction parallel to the fan shaft is considered of an optimum value if it is generally equal to the radius of the centrifugal fan. Accordingly, where the blower assembly is installed with the fan shaft extending vertically, i.e., generally perpendicular to the ceiling, such as disclosed in the second mentioned Japanese publication (No. 63-24011/1988), the blower assembly not only requires a width somewhat proportional to the diameter of the centrifugal fan, but also the installation of a fan drive motor in such a manner as to be oriented in a direction parallel to the fan shaft. Because of these factors, the thickness of the blower assembly as measured from the ceiling down to the bottom of the blower assembly cannot be reduced.
Since the height of the automobile body to the ceiling is generally limited from the standpoint of body aerodynamics, body stability, and other factors, it has long been considered a problem to reduce the bulkiness of the air conditioner in order to ensure the maximum space in the passenger's compartment with the air conditioner installed.
With the above described conventional automobile air conditioner, although it is possible to supply air in the front direction of the main body, and change the air flow direction to the left or light by changing the direction of blades installed on an outlet grille, it is impossible to supply air in a slanted direction.
Furthermore, the centrifugal fan and the drive motor used for the conventional automobile air conditioner are bulky as described above. In order to prevent the fan and motor from vibrating and to ensure stable blowing, it is necessary to increase the rigidity of the casing for fan and motor, resulting further in a bulky size of the air conditioner.